Kim Daesik jumped up from his seat. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before saying, “Th…those fools!” 

They were currently in a situation where they did not know whether Beas Village would disappear or not. In such a situation, trouble actually came up between the three strongest players present. Director Kim Daesik could not help but collapse into his seat as he stared blankly at the monitor.

“It might have been possible if those three people were together but…” 

Judging from the situation, only the two people, Ali and Minhyuk, would go up together. Of course, Kentaro’s actions were comprehensible, but Director Kim Daesik was mad due to other reasons.

They could hear the players’ voices through the speaker.

[This is why Koreans can’t make it.]

[They won’t be able to see the face of the Ancient Monarch.]

[Accompanying a Level 355 player? They’re both going to die. A mage with low HP needs to have a dedicated and outstanding tanker in front of him, but what can a Level 355 player offer?]

“How dare you look down on our Korean players!!” 

It was this part that made the anger in Director Kim Daesik boil! The mockery from the world! He gulped down some cold water fiercely, but whether it was to relieve his anger or moisten his throat, no one knew. 

Then, Lee Minhwa called out and said, “Director.” 

The furious Director Kim Daesik turned his head towards her.

“I think that this situation is good.” 

“Huh?” 

Lee Minhwa, who had just removed the label of being the new employee, was now one of the core team members. Since she always served beside Team Leader Park Minggyu as an assistant, she could easily predict more than what Director Kim could.

“Players Ali and Minhyuk are both unimaginably strong. Since it is quite difficult to clear the raid with only a few team members, the other players would have to match and recruit five people in their teams. That also means that there are many people who will share the scores. But! I think that those two will be able to do their parts well. In addition, Player Ali is…”

She smiled.

“He’s not just the number one in the official and unofficial mage rankings in our country. His strength is just a little below Alex, the number one player in the Official Global Mage Rankings. However, Ali also learned a higher class of magic.”

“…!”

It would not make sense that the staff in other teams would know about everything in the world. As for the Special Players Management Team, they had richer data compared to other teams.

“Th…then there’s hope? With just the two of them?”

Lee Minhwa nodded. A thought suddenly flashed through Director Kim Daesik’s head.

“But….if the two of them successfully killed the Ancient Monarch with a high score, what would be the reward?”

“Based on the current ‘score-based rewards’, there’s an ‘unreachable score’.” 

Director Kim nodded as he continued to listen to Lee Minhwa.

“When someone reaches that unreachable score, the Ancient Treasure Chest will reward the method of creating Demigod artifacts.”

***

Kentaro laughed at the three fools in front of him that had their arms raised to the sky. He said, “I see. I understand.” 

He thought that perhaps the robed guy was infected by the idiotic thoughts of the Korean next to him. However, Kentaro still believed that people should have a clear and distinctive line between their public and private lives.

To him, Ali had now missed an opportunity to receive great rewards. A variable had risen but instead of that variable, he should have chosen the rewards. And now, the worst combination for a mage was formed in front of him.

Kentaro turned around and moved off to find members for his party again. Of course, there was no party who was willing to receive the Black Mage Ali and Minhyuk.

“It’s fine. I’d rather be with Minhyuk than be with those people,” Ali said, in case Minhyuk felt sorry for him. Minhyuk just nodded silently at him. Then, the notifications rang.

[Please enter the Berest Mountains.]

[The passageway to Berest Mountains will appear according to the number of teams.]

[You cannot leave and escape the passageway given to you and hunt on other passageways.]

[The number of monsters, ranking of monsters, as well as the traps that will appear, will be the same for each and every team.]

[Additional scores will be rewarded to the team that arrives the earliest at the summit where the Ancient Monarch resides.]

Just like in the notifications, even if the party had a smaller number of members, the strength and number of the ancient soldiers and warriors would not be lowered. This was the reason why the most optimal number of members in a team was five.

In total, more than ten teams entered their respective passageways. The passageways were covered with transparent barriers so they could see each other, but they were not able to pass through this barrier. Other parties had at least 4~6 people entering their passageways, while Minhyuk and Ali was the only 2-man team that entered their passageway.

***

Kentaro began to climb upwards through the passageway that he entered with whom he thought were the best members that he had recruited.

‘The strengthened Ancient Monarch…’ 

They were unclear about how strong this mob boss would be, which might be a huge problem. Hence, he needed the best combination for his party.

“Jun, you said that you’re a tanker, grab the aggro in front, the archer player, Barmas and I will hit them hard. You might already know this, but my damage output is high enough, so you don’t have to worry about that. In addition, if the mobs get crowded, our mage player, Burrow, should use an AOE magic from time to time to fend them off.” 

“Yes.” 

Everyone seemed to have a strong faith in Kentaro’s strength, especially since he already had experience climbing the Berest Mountains to hunt the Ancient Monarch.

Not long after, the ancient soldiers appeared in front of them. The ancient soldiers were wearing leather armor with ragged and torn capes fluttering behind them. They were also holding a long spear in their hands.

‘It’s no different from before.’

They would experience and encounter a variety of things the further they climbed the mountains. As Kentaro recalled the process that he went through previously, he remembered that there were only three teams that were able to climb the mountains. In fact, he knew that the fastest team to climb would most likely be the one to hunt the Ancient Monarch. In addition, the higher their score, the higher their rewards. This would allow the fastest team to monopolize the Ancient Monarch.

Shweeeeeeeeek─

Then, the battle against the five ancient soldiers began. Jun stood at the forefront as he strengthened his body and prevented their spearheads from touching the rest of his team members.

Bang! Bang, bang!

“Keuhack! These bastards are a pain! If you use defensive skills, their spears get stuck!” 

The player priest immediately cast heal as tiny lights wrapped around tanker Jun’s body. Kentaro gripped his katanas tightly. His moniker, ‘Musashi’ was actually his legendary class.

“First strike. Quick.” 

[First Strike. Quick.]

[A single blow will attack the enemy quickly.]

Light flashed from Kentaro’s katana as he struck out once.

Shwaa!

An ancient soldier was pierced through by the katana, but he just stood there without moving.

[You have acquired 5 team points.]

[Each person will gain 2 individual points.]

If the overall score of the team was high then the rewards for all of the team members would also increase significantly. Among the team, those with higher individual scores would also get much better rewards compared to the rest of the team.

Dash—

Kentaro quickly dashed forward and dealt with the ancient soldiers with his flamboyant sword skills. He said, “Let’s go up as fast as we can to hunt the Ancient Monarch.” 

Seeing that the first mobs were not that different from his previous experience, Kentaro started to become arrogant and conceited, even though he did not know how strong the Ancient Monarch was now. All that he could think of right now was to go up as fast as he could and monopolize the Ancient Monarch.

He looked around at his surroundings and saw the different teams climbing up through the different passageways. The situation was still normal, since the ancient soldiers were only 40% stronger than usual. However, the problem was that ancient warriors would also appear which meant that the difficulty would increase as they climbed up.

At that moment, Kentaro’s eyes passed by the figures of two men. They were the Black Mage Ali and the Level 355 player earlier. He asked aloud, “What are they doing?” 

The unidentified man was running fast while Black Mage Ali was chasing after him. There were more than 30 ancient soldiers pursuing them. He could see that there were even ancient warriors among the mobs. Suddenly, something amazing happened. The mage player wielded his staff as a black ring rose over the heads of the ancient soldiers.

‘Undead Boom?’ 

Undead Boom was a magic that could only be performed by a high-leveled mage. This magic was clearly divided between success and failure. If the mage succeeded, he would be able to kill all of the undead mobs at once. The probability of success would increase depending on the mage’s level. In all honesty though, it was quite hard for a high-leveled mage to kill the undead mobs with Undead Boom.

However, Kentaro was shocked by what he saw.

“…!”

It was not just one! Completed black rings were formed over the heads of forty ancient soldiers.

“Wh…what the hell?!” 

Kentaro had never seen such a powerful display of ‘Undead Boom’ in his life. Then, he saw Ali lift the staff high up in the sky. A powerful, brilliant and bright light burst out of his staff. Then…

Bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

…out of the 40 ancient soldiers, more than 30 exploded.

‘Crazy shit…! High-leveled mages said that the success rate for the undead boom was just at 40%…!’ 

To think that there was someone who was able to hunt with such a huge undead boom?

‘I think he’s a very unexpected high-level player, right? But that’s fine. The other guy is a burden to him anyway.’

Kentaro sneered while staring at the man named Minhyuk. Then, he said to his party members, “Let’s go! Quickly!”

“Yes!”

Kentaro and his group quickly climbed up the mountain.

***

After using Undead Boom, Ali heard a notification.

[You have acquired 158 team points.]

[Each person will gain 75 individual points.]

Great Undead Boom was a skill that would simultaneously cast the Undead Boom skill on all undead monsters within a 20-meter radius. In addition, the probability of success and failure was dependent on the WIS, INT and the mage’s class.

‘I didn’t know that Minhyuk has such great aggro…’

Ali shook his head as his brows furrowed. He thought, ‘Strange… why does that aggro skill look so familiar?’

He had heard something about it once, but it was just a vague piece of memory so he thought little of it.

Among the fallen ancient soldiers, ten ancient soldiers and one ancient warrior remained. In the event of failure, Undead Boom would not deal even 1% of damage, but would instead eat away at the mana of the player. In other words, the risk was high. Even so, Ali was already at a point that was higher than the rest of the mages so he believed that his skills were more than enough. He was confident in himself.

Still, he quickly moved in front of Minhyuk using Blink.

“Minhyuk, stay behind me! I still have a lot of MP!”

It was all thanks to Minhyuk’s buff ability that he had gained an additional 25% of MP. His MP’s natural recovery was also increased due to the increase in his WIS and INT.

“Firewall!”

A great wall of fire rose from the ground! The fire blocked the ancient soldiers and created a gap. In that short gap, Ali quickly cast and fired his magic.

“Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!”

A huge fireball that was extremely different from a regular mage’s fireball shot out from Ali’s staff.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

‘What the hell?! Why is this punk not dying?!’

Ali’s face suddenly distorted. An ancient warrior garbed in thick golden armor approached Ali’s giant fireball without even a wince.

‘Don’t tell me that they have 100% magical defense?!’

Sometimes, monsters that had high magical defense would break through and achieve such a skill. Mages were most powerless against such adversaries. These kinds of monsters would reduce magical damage by as much as 80%.

‘We’re in trouble. If all the ancient warriors are like this…’

His magic would become useless. Then, at that moment, he heard the voice from behind him say, “Please wait. Like the Wind.”

Dash!

Ali heard the sound of the wind passing by his side as he stared at the gigantic 2.5metres ancient warrior that was holding a greatsword in front of them. At that moment, Minhyuk’s sword moved.

Shwaa—

It was just a single blow. And with that one blow…

Plop!

…the head of the ancient warrior fell down. Ali’s head turned to look at the fallen head, before turning to Minhyuk. He alternated between the head and Minhyuk five times within three seconds. He thought, ‘Wh…what the hell?’

What was going on? Then, the information about someone suddenly popped out in Ali’s head. The problem was that he just could not remember the name, no matter how hard he tried. 

His head blanked out like a white sheet of paper as he unconsciously asked, “Y…you. Just who are you?” 

At his question, Minhyuk just raised his left arm with the ‘X’ and said, “Frieeeeeeeeeeeeend!” before he grinned.